


Hearts in Overdrive

by GentleReader1



Category: Four Weddings and a Funeral (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 05:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20522621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GentleReader1/pseuds/GentleReader1
Summary: What happens after the backstage kiss?  This is one possibility...AU from end of episode seven, "The Sound of Music."





	Hearts in Overdrive

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this after episode seven (The Sound of Music) aired, but it took me a bit to get it all down. If folks are interested, I’ll make it a multi-chapter fic that goes AU from here, although there will be some canon events that show up. Hope you enjoy!

**Chapter One**

Maya has no idea how long they’re standing there, the hazy stage light filtering through the glass-paned screen, pressed up against the wall where he carved his name when he was ten.

She’s been waiting, all these weeks, to feel his arms around her, his lips on hers. All these weeks, while she watched him sing and dance and charm the children and the construction crew alike…all these weeks when the refrain in her head was

_No._

_No._

_No._

_No._

Aaand…_NO._

But the look on his face when he thanks her, when he tells her, “I’m happy”…it tips her over the edge. She steps up close to him and _NO _becomes...

_Yes. Oh, God…yes._

They finally break apart, and he asks breathlessly, “Can we get out of here?” 

She nods, and hands entwined they make a quiet break for it, down the long backstage hallway, stepping over abandoned bouquets of edelweiss. They’re nearly at the door when she stops. 

“Where?” she queries softly. 

Where, indeed. The question is freighted with all the reasons that have kept them apart: his place has a deluded dad who thinks his son loves municipal bonds and arranged marriages, a way-too-knowing little brother, and a totally impossible bunk bed.

Her place, of course, has Ainsley.

At that thought, she stops cold, taking a step back. “Maybe I should—” 

“No!” he cuts her off, and his eyes are pleading. “I know a place. We can just…talk.”

Talking is OK. Talking is not kissing…not melting into nothingness in his arms…

Talking is _not _cheating. (She of all people knows exactly what cheating is.)

They hurry out the back door. The sound of the theater crowd dispersing, congratulations ringing through the air, drifts back to them. Turning quickly in the opposite direction, they walk briskly through an alley to a quiet street.

(But it’s not cheating.) 

Heads down and silent, they go up two blocks and around a corner, coming to a stop in a little patch of light on the otherwise-dark lane. There’s a white sign that reads “EBAB” above the door, the “K” blinking haphazardly. Kash pulls Maya in after him, as a bell above the door tinkles brightly.

It’s a tiny place, no more than a few vinyl-covered tables and a glass-fronted case that during the day must display the shop’s wares. Now, after ten o’clock, the case is empty. Other than the faint sound of running water and an occasional _ZZZT!_ From the flyzapper hung in the corner, it’s perfectly silent.

“Are you sure they’re—” Maya starts to say. 

“Kashif! It’s been far too long!” A round-cheeked, merry-looking woman wearing an apron over her long shirt and trousers comes out from the back, bustling up to Kash and literally pinching his cheeks. Maya smothers a giggle behind her hand.

“Auntie!” Kash leans down and kisses her. “It’s good to see you. This is my…friend, Maya.” Something blooms in Maya’s chest at his slight hesitation, as Kash turns to her. “This is Ruba. Best kebabs in Hounslow.”

Maya reaches out to shake Ruba’s hand. “I didn't know you had an aunt in London!” 

Kash laughs. “No, that’s just a term of endearment. But she has been feeding me since I was six.”

Ruba steps back, looking him up and down. “Tcha, Beta, seems like nobody is feeding you these days! You sit down. I make you something.”

“Oh…it’s so late…we don’t want to put you to any trouble,” Maya protests, but Ruba merely waves her off as she heads to the back.

She and Kash sit at one of the tiny tables. “So…I take it you’ve been coming here a long time?”

“Almost all my life. Sometimes my mom would even drop me off here for a few hours if she had to work. I’d do my homework in the back and steal sips of lassi when Ruba wasn’t looking.” He smiles at the memory, and Maya’s heart skips several beats. The urge to reach out and touch him is overwhelming; she twists her hands together in her lap to keep from doing it. Her treacherous mind, however, isn’t so easily controlled, and she finds herself reliving their backstage kiss while Kash, at her urging, tells more childhood stories.

That smile. It had given her goosebumps, even as she sat on a suitcase in the Heathrow unclaimed luggage warehouse. It seemed to pull her in, to promise delicious secrets and funny jokes and joy. Every time she’d seen him since, the attraction crackled and hummed between them, no matter how firmly she’d tamped it down. It had never been like that for her before…certainly not with Duffy. Oh, Duffy—she loved him, of course she did, and she loved their shared history, and for awhile it seemed like that could (should?) be enough. 

As for Ted…that was tougher. Sure, she’d wanted him…but she had to admit that part of it was proximity to power. She found the wrangling over strategy and policy positions just as sexy as anything they did in bed, laced with the thrill of the forbidden; ultimately, though, as much as she was risking her career (and his), she was never risking her heart. Some part of her knew he would never leave Liz…and knew she didn’t really want him to.

But this…this was a rightness she’d never felt, puzzle pieces clicking into place, two souls merging, a sense of coming home—every hackneyed metaphor (clichés she would _never_put into a speech) suddenly infused with blinding truth. 

Ruba brings them bowls of stew she calls _nihari_, with little bowls of condiments on the side. It smells warm, comforting…but a little spicy, too. Maya tries a bite and can’t help sighing her appreciation…and there’s that smile again, like a caress. “Wow,” Kash says.

She flushes pink and puts a hand to her mouth in embarrassment. “OK, but that is _good_. Like really, really good.”

He reaches across the table, twining her fingers with his. “Glad you like it.” There’s a spark in his eyes that makes her lean in, just a little closer—

“Some _naan_,” chirps Ruba, and Kash pulls his hand back, sitting up very straight as she sets down a silver basket. “Nice and hot.”

“It certainly is.” Maya runs one hand over her hair, eyes firmly back on her bowl, until Ruba disappears into the back again.

Kash holds out his hand. “Where were we?”

“Oh, no,” she laughs. “I’m not getting caught canoodling by your auntie again.”

“You’re probably right.” He lowers his voice. “But you’d better hurry up and finish. If I can’t kiss you again in the next five minutes, I think I’ll go mad.”

She knows the feeling. They each eat a few more bites in silence, and Kash goes back to the kitchen to settle the bill. By the time he comes back, followed by a beaming Ruba, Maya has her coat on, ready to go.

Ruba clasps her hand. “It was so nice meeting you, Maya dear. Take care of our Kashif, now.” She squeezes Maya’s fingers, and whether this is meant as a benediction or a warning isn’t clear.

Kash grabs his own coat, bids goodbye to Ruba, and pulls Maya outside, making it just a few steps into the safety of the darkness before he turns to her, cupping her cheek in one hand. “God, Maya, you—”

PING! PING!

Her text alert is so loud in the silence of the street that she jumps.

His hand falls away. “Do you need to--?”

“Sorry—I’ll just—” She fumbles in her purse, finally locating her stupid phone…and as she looks at the screen, her heart plunges into her stomach and her mouth goes dry.

**Ainsley Howard 11:06pm  
** _When are you coming home?_

**Ainsley Howard 11:06pm  
** _Seriously! I need you!!_

“Oh, crap,” Maya breathes.

“Is everything OK?” Kash looks down at her, all concern.

What the hell has she been thinking, acting like he was just any random available guy, and NOT the man who left her best friend at the altar?

“I have to go,” she insists, taking a step back.

“OK, let me take you. My place isn’t far from here—we can get my car.”

“No, it’s fine.” She taps her phone quickly. “I just ordered an Uber—”

“Don’t be silly—I can get you there just as—”

“Kash.” Her voice breaks, saying his name. “I can’t…_do_this.”

“Maya!” he pleads.

“I just—can’t!”

She turns, running out to the main road, careful not to look back so he can’t see her tears.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from the Nina Nesbitt version of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” that plays at the end of the episode.
> 
> Feedback much appreciated!


End file.
